Saudi Arabia Outraged At Ben-Gvir’s Call To Build Synagogue Over Al-Aqsa Mosque
In recent years Saudi Arabia and Israel have been moving remarkably fast toward the restoration of official relations, in what’s been called a highly anticipated ‘deal of the century’ – but the Gaza war in the wake of Oct.7 have put these efforts on hold and looks to derail the initiative altogether.
This week tensions have escalated, given that Muslims see current Israeli policies toward Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem as very seriously threatening and an affront to their faith. Israel’s hard-line Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir this week went to so far as to call for a synagogue to be built atop Islam’s third holiest site.
The remarks came during a Monday interview with Army Radio and immediately unleashed controversy, with some Israeli groups even condemning the remarks as needlessly inflammatory and unrealistic.
Ben-Gvir during the interview said that Jews should be allow unrestricted access to pray at the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is situation upon what’s called Temple Mount and the Western Wall, a sacred site for the Jews.
Any establishment of a synagogue or new (third) temple on the site would require the destruction of the Al Aqsa Mosque, possibly leading to Islamic uprisings in the region so large it could trigger broader war.
According to Ben-Gvir’s words in the public broadcast interview:
“If I could do anything I wanted, I would put an Israeli flag on the site,” Ben-Gvir said in the interview.
Asked several times by a journalist if he would build a synagogue at the site if it were up to him, Ben-Gvir finally replied: “Yes.”
Saudi Arabia was quick to condemn the “extremist” words. “The kingdom affirms its categorical rejection of these extremist and inflammatory statements and its rejection of the continuous provocations of the feelings of Muslims around the world,” an official statement reads.
It added, “The kingdom stresses the need to respect the historical and legal status quo of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, renewing its call to the international community to fulfill its responsibilities in putting an end to the humanitarian disaster that the brotherly Palestinian people are enduring and to initiate serious mechanisms to hold Israeli officials accountable for the ongoing violations of international laws, norms, and resolutions.”
Other governments in the region, especially Turkey, also condemned the Israeli national security minister’s remarks:
Türkiye condemns Ben-Gvir’s call to build synagogue inside Al-Aqsa Mosque
Türkiye has strongly condemned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s recent remarks about building a synagogue within the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, calling it a “new and extremely dangerous”… pic.twitter.com/u8Ld7JCayV
— The SETA Foundation at Washington DC (@SETADC) August 28, 2024
The Saudi kingdom oversees the two holiest sites in Islam of Mecca and Medina, and hosts annual Haj (pilgrimage) events, and so Riyadh often serves the role of a global spokesman for broader Islamic issues.
Defense Minister Umerov was also quoted as writing on Facebook that “This once again proves that for victory, we need long-range capabilities and the lifting of restrictions on strikes on the enemy’s military facilities.”
Palianytsia’s range is equivalent to the ATACMS’.
Therein lies the reason behind the media hype over this new weapon.
Although Kiev claims that it was an entirely indigenous creation, it’s difficult to believe that NATO countries didn’t contribute to it. More than likely, Western military-technical specialists participated in its production, though this might have been done without their political leadership being aware. The goal appears to have been to pressure them into lifting restrictions by Ukraine on the use of their weapons after this fait accompli.
Chinese Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs Li strongly implied as much after he warned earlier this week that Western “super hawks” and members of the military-industrial complex are behind the push for letting Ukraine use their weapons to hit deep inside of Russian territory. About that scenario, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov also chimed in and accused Zelensky of “blackmailing” the West, which he said would amount to “playing with fire” if they end up going through with it.
The US still doesn’t let Ukraine strike targets deep inside of Russia, even though the precedent is for it to always give Kiev whatever it demands after some time. This delay is attributable both to a desire to control escalation with Russia and to simple pragmatism. After all, if the best weapons were given and deployed right away (after training was completed of course) but didn’t make much of a difference, then there’d be nothing better to give them once they ran out and defeat would soon follow.
It therefore makes sense to start small and exercise restraint before scaling up and easing restrictions. As regards the Palianytsia, while it might have an important tactical purpose if its claimed range is accurate, its real significance is to justify the easing of those aforesaid restrictions on the use of American arms. Ukraine wants policymakers and the public to believe that the Palianytsia was already used and Russia didn’t “overreact” like some expected, so it also won’t “overreact” if ATACMS restrictions are soon lifted.
While this ploy might prove successful, two of the implied points contained within the preceding narrative are counterproductive to Ukraine’s soft power cause. For example, some might question the need for more American arms and financing if Ukraine is already able to supposedly create long-range missiles on its own without any help like it claims just happened. There’s also the question of why the lifting of restrictions is so urgent if Ukraine is winning like it also claims is the case too.
If its military-industrial complex is carrying on just fine without any Western support and its invasion of Kursk has truly been the game-changer that some have presented it as being, then it follows that foreign aid could be curtailed and there’s no reason to risk an escalation with Russia by easing restrictions.
Neither is obviously true, but the fact that Ukraine is still pushing this narrative shows how much more desperate it’s becoming as well as the importance of elite and public opinion on this sensitive issue.
The Palianytsia is therefore more of a psychological weapon than a tactical one due to its envisaged role in reshaping perceptions and getting America to lift its restrictions on using the ATACMS to strike deep inside Russian territory. Even if it succeeds, however, that probably won’t change the military-strategic dynamics of this conflict in Kiev’s favor since Russia continues to gradually gain ground in Donbass, and its impending capture of Pokrovsk could lead to a chain reaction of victories in the coming future.
War propaganda and feint are as old as the hills. Nothing new. But what is new is that infowar is no longer the adjunct to wider war objectives – but has become an end in and of itself.
The West has come to view ‘owning’ the winning narrative – and presenting the Other’s as clunky, dissonant, and extremist – as being more important than facing facts-on-the ground. Owning the winning narrative is to win, in this view. Virtual ‘victory’ thus trumps ‘real’ reality.
So, war becomes rather the setting for imposing ideological alignment across a wide global alliance and enforcing it via compliant media.
This objective enjoys a higher priority than, say, ensuring a manufacturing capacity sufficient to sustain military objectives. Crafting an imagined ‘reality’ has taken precedence over shaping the ground reality.
The point here is that this approach – being a function of whole of society alignment (both at home and abroad) – creates entrapments into false realities, false expectations, from which an exit (when such becomes necessary), turns near impossible, precisely because imposed alignment has ossified public sentiment. The possibility for a State to change course as events unfold becomes curtailed or lost, and the accurate reading of facts on the ground veers toward the politically correct and away from reality.
The cumulative effect of ‘a winning virtual narrative’ holds the risk nonetheless, of sliding incrementally toward inadvertent ‘real war’.
Take, for example, the NATO-orchestrated and equipped incursion into the symbolically significant Kursk Oblast. In terms of a ‘winning narrative’, its appeal to the West is obvious: Ukraine ‘takes the war to into Russia’.
Had the Ukrainian forces succeeded in capturing the Kursk Nuclear Power Station, they then would have had a significant bargaining chip, and might well have syphoned away Russian forces from the steadily collapsing Ukrainian ‘Line’ in Donbas.
And to top it off, (in infowar terms), the western media was prepped and aligned to show President Putin as “frozen” by the surprise incursion, and “wobbling” with anxiety that the Russian public would turn against him in their anger at the humiliation.
Bill Burns, head of CIA, opined that “Russia would offer no concessions on Ukraine, until Putin’s over-confidence was challenged, and Ukraine could show strength”. Other U.S. officials added that the Kursk incursion – in itself – would not bring Russia to the negotiating table; It would be necessary to build on the Kursk operation with other daring operations (to shake Moscow’s sang froid).
Of course, the overall aim was to show Russia as fragile and vulnerable, in line with the narrative that, at any moment Russia, could crack apart and scatter to the wind, in fragments. Leaving the West as winner, of course.
In fact, the Kursk incursion was a huge NATO gamble: It involved mortgaging Ukraine’s military reserves and armour, as chips on the roulette table, as a bet that an ephemeral success in Kursk would upend the strategic balance. The bet was lost, and the chips forfeit.
Plainly put, this Kursk affair exemplifies the West’s problem with ‘winning narratives’: Their inherent flaw is that they are grounded in emotivism and eschew argumentation. Inevitably, they are simplistic. They are simply intended to fuel a ‘whole of society’ common alignment. Which is to say that across MSM; business, federal agencies, NGOs and the security sector, all should adhere to opposing all ‘extremisms’ threatening ‘our democracy’.
This aim, of itself, dictates that the narrative be undemanding and relatively uncontentious: ‘Our Democracy, Our Values and Our Consensus’. The Democratic National Convention, for example, embraces ‘Joy’ (repeated endlessly), ‘moving Forward’ and ‘opposing weirdness’ as key statements. They are banal, however, these memes are given their energy and momentum, not by content so much, as by the deliberate Hollywood setting lending them razzamatazz and glamour.
It is not hard to see how this one-dimensional zeitgeist may have contributed to the U.S. and its allies’ misreading the impact of today’s Kursk ‘daring adventure’ on ordinary Russians.
‘Kursk’ has history. In 1943, Germany invaded Russia in Kursk to divert from its own losses, with Germany ultimately defeated at the Battle of Kursk. The return of German military equipment to the environs of Kursk must have left many gaping; the current battlefield around the town of Sudzha is precisely the spot where, in 1943, the Soviet 38th and 40th armies coiled for a counteroffensive against the German 4th Army.
Over the centuries, Russia has been variously attacked on its vulnerable flank from the West. And more recently by Napoleon and Hitler. Unsurprisingly, Russians are acutely sensitive to this bloody history. Did Bill Burns et al think this through? Did they imagine that NATO invading Russia itself would make Putin feel ‘challenged’, and that with one further shove, he would fold, and agree to a ‘frozen’ outcome in Ukraine – with the latter entering NATO? Maybe they did.
Ultimately the message that western services sent was that the West (NATO) is coming for Russia. This is the meaning of deliberately choosing Kursk. Reading the runes of Bill Burns message says prepare for war with NATO.
Just to be clear, this genre of ‘winning narrative’ surrounding Kursk is neither deceit nor feint. The Minsk Accords were examples of deceit, but they were deceits grounded in rational strategy (i.e. they were historically normal). The Minsk deceits were intended to buy the West time to further Ukraine’s militarisation – before attacking the Donbas. The deceit worked, but only at the price of a rupture of trust between Russia and the West. The Minsk deceits however, also accelerated an end to the 200-year era of the westification of Russia.
Kursk rather, is a different ‘fish’. It is grounded in the notions of western exceptionalism. The West perceives itself as tacking to ‘the right side of History’. ‘Winning narratives’ essentially assert – in secular format – the inevitability of the western eschatological Mission for global redemption and convergence. In this new narrative context, facts-on-the-ground become mere irritants, and not realities that must be taken into account.
This their Achilles’ Heel.
The DNC convention in Chicago however, underscored a further concern:
Just as the hegemonic West arose out of the Cold War era shaped and invigorated through dialectic opposition to communism (in the western mythology), so we see today, a (claimed) totalising ‘extremism’ (whether of MAGA mode; or of the external variety: Iran, Russia, etc.) – posed in Chicago in a similar Hegelian dialectic opposition to the former capitalism versus communism; but in today’s case, it is “extremism” in conflict with “Our Democracy”.
The DNC Chicago narrative-thesis is itself a tautology of identity differentiation posing as ‘togetherness’ under a diversity banner and in conflict with ‘whiteness’ and ‘extremism’. ‘Extremism’ effectively plainly is being set up as the successor to the former Cold War antithesis – communism.
The Chicago ‘back-room’ may be imagining that a confrontation with extremism – writ widely – will again, as it did in the post-Cold War era, yield an American rejuvenation. Which is to say that a conflict with Iran, Russia, and China (in a different way) may come onto the agenda. The telltale signs are there (plus the West’s need for a re-set of its economy, which war regularly provides).
The Kursk ploy no doubt seemed clever and audacious to London and Washington. Yet with what result? It achieved neither objective of taking Kursk NPP, nor of syphoning Russian troops from the Contact Line. The Ukrainian presence in the Kursk Oblast will be eliminated.
What it did do, however, is put an end to all prospects of an eventual negotiated settlement in Ukraine. Distrust of the U.S. in Russia is now absolute. It has made Moscow more determined to prosecute the special operation to conclusion. German equipment visible in Kursk has raised old ghosts, and consolidated awareness of the hostile western intentions toward Russia.
Despite many nations transitioning away from fossil fuels, in 2023, world coal consumption reached a staggering 164 exajoules (EJ) of energy, a record high for any year.
For this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Alan Kennedy has partnered with Range ETFs to explore the role coal plays in the global energy mix and determine which regions still consume large quantities of coal.
The Role of Coal in Global Energy
Coal is a significant player in the global energy mix, contributing 26% of the world’s energy in 2023, more than all non-fossil fuel sources combined. The only energy source that contributed more to the global energy mix was oil.
Here’s how that consumption breaks down by region:
Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. *Commonwealth of Independent States
Coal consumption has decreased in many regions. For example, both North America and Europe reduced their energy consumption from coal by 16% in 2023. However, a heavy reliance on coal in the Asia Pacific region has led to global coal consumption remaining essentially the same over the past 10 years.
In 2023, China increased its coal consumption from 88 EJ to nearly 92 EJ—totalling 56% of global coal consumption. This contributed significantly to Asia Pacific leading the world with a staggering 83% of global coal consumption.
The Importance of Coal
Easy access to existing infrastructure and reasonable prices have not only sustained global coal consumption over the last 10 years, but also paved the way for potential growth. Many developing nations are now expanding their coal consumption, presenting potential opportunities in the coal market.
For example, as per the Statistical Review of World Energy 2024, between 2022 and 2023, Bangladesh and Colombia saw double-digit percentage increases in year-over-year coal consumption: 41% and 53%, respectively.
Coal continues to play a critical role in the global energy mix, especially in the developing world, where its affordability makes it the current energy source of choice.
Camu camu, a small yet powerful berry from the Amazon rainforest, could be useful in treating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), recent research suggests.
“When we compare camu camu versus placebo, [there’s more than] a 15 percent difference in your liver fat in only 12 weeks,” André Marette, a medical professor at Laval University in Quebec and the lead author of the study, told The Epoch Times in an interview.
Camu camu is a berry native to South America, characterized by a deep red color when ripe and a tart flavor, and is about the size of a grape.
NAFLD begins with fat buildup in the liver, which can lead to severe liver conditions, such as liver scarring. Without intervention, NAFLD can potentially progress to fatal liver failure. The condition currently affects more than a quarter of adults in the United States.
The study was published on Aug. 20 in Cell Reports Medicine.
Camu Camu Reduces Liver Fat
In a randomized, double-blind trial, Marette and the research team from Laval University studied 30 overweight adults with high blood lipid levels—a marker for NAFLD—who were given either 1.5 grams of camu camu powder or a placebo daily for 12 weeks.
Participants taking camu camu experienced a nearly 7.5 percent reduction of fat in their livers, as measured by magnetic resonance imaging, while those on the placebo saw a nearly 8.5 percent increase.
This is more than a 15 percent difference, according to the study’s authors, highlighting camu camu’s potential as a powerful natural remedy for fatty liver disease.
Known for its high vitamin C levels, camu camu contains a unique mix of beneficial polyphenols, including ellagic acid and castalagin, both of which have anti-inflammatory properties.
According to the study authors, there is a lack of pharmacological treatments for managing NAFLD which currently primarily relies on lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise, as the condition is closely tied to obesity and diabetes.
Polyphenols and Gut Health
The benefits of camu camu are largely attributed to its impact on fat metabolism. The researchers believe that camu camu’s health effects come from its high concentration of polyphenols which assist in breaking down fat in the liver and inhibit the formation of new fat.
“Our hypothesis was that even a short-term treatment with camu camu would help burn the fat out of the liver,” Marette said.
Camu camu’s effectiveness is enhanced by having a healthy gut microbiome, which consists of beneficial bacteria that help metabolize the polyphenols in camu camu, said Marette.
“The microbiota metabolizes the large polyphenol molecules that cannot be absorbed by the intestine, transforming them into smaller molecules that the body can assimilate to decrease liver fat,” Marette stated in a press release. Those with a well-balanced microbiome are likely to benefit most from camu camu’s effects, he added.
Participants in the camu camu group also showed reductions in key liver enzymes that are typically elevated in NAFLD and indicate liver damage. Additionally, their gut microbiomes exhibited beneficial changes, indicating that gut health is linked to metabolic health.
These improvements occurred without significant changes in body weight or overall body fat, suggesting that camu camu specifically targets liver health rather than general weight loss.
Findings from previous animal studies suggest that camu camu may also reduce body fat stores and body weight over a longer period of time, the researchers say.
To date, there are few studies on risks or concerns associated with consuming camu camu products, with one from 2013 that featured a case study of possible liver injury related to its use. Additionally, because it is high in vitamin C, it may interfere with certain chemotherapy drugs.
Looking Ahead: Advancing Treatment for All Ages
The incidence of NAFLD has surged across all age groups from 2017 and 2021, with the most significant increase observed in children under 17.
According to data from Trilliant Health, NAFLD diagnoses in this age group more than doubled during this period, reflecting a rise in childhood obesity and diabetes.
Future research aims to enhance the benefits of camu camu by identifying which gut bacteria are essential for metabolizing its polyphenols. Marette told the Epoch Times that not all participants experienced the same level of liver fat reduction, which the researchers attribute to variations in “the participants’ gut microbiota composition.”
Marette said that the next step will be to pinpoint the key bacteria needed for metabolizing these polyphenols. Researchers will also investigate the metabolic products of camu camu’s polyphenols to understand their role in reducing liver fat. The team is optimistic that camu camu could become a valuable tool for both prevention and treatment.
California lawmakers passed a bill Aug. 26 that would prohibit colleges and universities in the state from making hiring decisions based on a students’ immigration status, with the measure now on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk awaiting a signature or veto.
At issue is Assembly Bill 2586, introduced by Assemblymembers David Alvarez (D-San Diego) and Mike Gipson (D-Carson) and better known as the Opportunity for All Act, which instructs the University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges to treat federal laws prohibiting hiring undocumented individuals as inapplicable beginning on or before Jan. 6, 2025.
Alvarez said the bill is needed because such students have “fulfilled their obligations” and are preparing themselves to better serve the state.
“America has always promised that if you work hard, you will have the opportunity to succeed,” he said in legislative analyses. “This bill will provide them with the opportunity to be employed by their campus to earn the financial means as they work towards completing their degrees.”
The author said the bill would also bolster California’s position as a leading policymaker that inspires national trends.
“California has the opportunity to continue to serve as a model for the rest of the nation,” Alvarez said. “Only then can our state truly maintain its status as an economic powerhouse and the place where the nation’s future is invented.”
The bill passed 63–7 in the Assembly and 31–8 in the Senate, with most Republicans voting against it.
“This bill flagrantly flouts federal law, and federal law is very clear. You have to be eligible for employment to be hired, you cannot be here unlawfully,” Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Corona) told The Epoch Times.
“Now California has passed a bill saying we’re going to ignore that … and that is not democracy.”
One proponent of the bill called its passage a “huge win for undocumented students in California.”
“Victory,” the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights posted Aug. 26 on X. “Now, [the governor] must sign the bill to secure equal opportunities for all students in [California].”
Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the bill.
An organization representing students said the approximately 83,000 undocumented students attending California’s institutions of higher learning would greatly benefit from the law.
“California has been a leader in the nation in providing education to students, with grants, loans, and scholarships available to undocumented students pursuing their higher education dreams,” the California State Student Association said in legislative analyses. “AB 2586 would open doors for students, regardless of immigration status, to continue to pursue their higher education dreams while being eligible for work opportunities on campus.”
The California Labor Federation said in analyses that current guidelines that outlaw the hiring of undocumented students are rooted in what some believe is an “incorrect interpretation” of the Immigration Reform and Control Act passed in 1986.
“Legal scholars have identified that the federal prohibition on hiring undocumented people does not apply to state governments when they act as employers, like California’s higher education systems,” the group wrote in legislative analyses. “This means that the [University of California], [California State University], and the [state’s community colleges] can authorize the hiring of all their undocumented students.”
While no official opposition was received by legislative committees, the University of California wrote a letter outlining concerns that some undocumented students and their families could face criminal prosecution or deportation, employees participating in hiring decisions could be subject to civil or criminal prosecution due to violations of federal law, and the university system could incur civil fines and face criminal penalties or lose access to federal contracts.
State university systems also noted that billions of dollars in federal funding could be jeopardized for violating federal law.
Essayli, an attorney with experience as a federal prosecutor, advised schools to discuss the matter with legal counsel before proceeding.
“I would strongly encourage every … campus to talk to their attorneys before they violate federal law … because it could jeopardize their federal funding, and more importantly, subject them to both civil and criminal prosecution,” Essayli said.
If signed into law, costs to the state could be in the mid-hundreds of thousands of dollars for universities to update policies, and one-time costs could reach millions of dollars to update procedures across the state’s 72 community college districts, according to the Senate’s Appropriations Committee.
One lawmaker said the bill would help students manage expenses.
“Students attending UC campuses, state universities, and community colleges should have equal access to employment and other opportunities just like every other student, regardless of their immigration status,” state Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) said in a February press release issued by Alvarez. “They also need qualitative work experience and to earn an income during their studies, especially as college tuition hikes make it more difficult for our students to attain higher education.”
Zelensky Claims West-Supplied F16s Successfully Shot Down Russian Missiles
This week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that for the first time Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets have been engaged in combat against the Russians, and successfully shot down inbound missiles and drones.
“We destroyed already some missiles and drones using the F-16,” Zelensky said Tuesday, specifically in comments given in English, before a press briefing – but without providing many details.
The first batch of F-16s donated by European countries, and greenlighted by Washington, only arrived earlier this month; however it’s not known precisely how many are now in Ukraine’s possession or where they are operating from.
Monday through Tuesday saw one of the largest waves of airstrikes by Russia targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure nationwide.
Despite that Ukraine may at this point be operating a dozen US-made F-16s or more, Russia still managed to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses, targeting 15 out of 24 oblasts – and plunging much of the country into darkness.
But Kiev is claiming that only some 10% of Russian projectiles fired in the Monday large-scale attack hit their targets, out of well over 100 missiles and the same amount of drones fired.
Previously, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov warned that the Kremlin “will regard the very fact that the Ukrainian armed forces have such systems as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere.”
Still, Zelensky is already pushing for more jets in order to defend the skies. The Economist has indicated that ten have so far been delivered, out of a pledged total of 79.
But Zelensky has stated that his armed forces need at least 128 if they hope to successfully take on the well-armed Russians.
Photographs at undisclosed locations of F-16s parked in Ukraine have emerged this month…
The The Wall Street Journal previously indicated that the Pentagon is outfitting Ukraine’s jets with air-to-ground AGM-88 HARM missiles, bomb sights, diameter bombs, AMRAAM advanced air-to-air missiles, and AIM-9X short-range air-to-air missiles. All sides keep escalating and the weapons pipeline to Kiev shows no signs of slowing.
If past is prologue, Donald Trump will win Pennsylvania.
Eight years ago this week, Hillary Clinton led in Pennsylvania by more than nine points; four years ago, Joe Biden led by nearly six points. Clinton lost Pennsylvania by less than a point, while Biden won it by more than a point.
Heading into the Democratic National Convention, the Emerson/RealClearPennsylvania poll showed Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris by a point.
Averaging together the Pennsylvania polling taken since Harris became the Democratic Party’s nominee, the state’s presidential race is a dead heat.
Of the fifty-nine public polls released in 2016 tracking the Pennsylvania presidential race, Trump led in only two. In 2020, Trump led in only five of the eighty-four Pennsylvania polls released.
This cycle, Trump has led in thirteen of the seventeen Pennsylvania polls released. In fact, Trump is leading more polls than the previous two election cycles combined, and we have yet to reach Labor Day, when polling frequency intensifies.
Considering the previous Pennsylvania election results, today’s polling suggests that Trump is poised to seize the largest margin of victory for a presidential candidate in Pennsylvania since Barack Obama’s eight-point win in 2008.
It’s unlikely that Trump can duplicate Obama’s margin. Pennsylvania voters are supremely polarized, just like elsewhere in the country. The partisan mobilization of the left and right guarantees a close race. Harris’s candidacy has ignited a previously dormant liberal base, while legal persecution and an assassination attempt on Trump crystallized voting as a cultural imperative on the right.
Nonetheless, the dramatic polling shift compared with previous presidential election cycles is confounding, as no pivotal factor explains Trump’s persistent overperformance. Rather, it appears to be caused by an accrual of factors.
One factor may be the reputed “shy Trump voters” who are no longer inhibited from voicing their support. These voters shocked the world in 2016 and defied 2020 polling. They are now out of the Trump closet, loud and proud.
Another factor may be the strength of regional biases. In northeastern Pennsylvania, Biden wore his “Scranton Joe” moniker proudly, emphasizing his birthplace and hardscrabble roots in the Commonwealth. It helped Biden tap into the region’s swing voters in a way that Clinton could not. Now these voters are trending Republican, and Biden’s absence from the ticket gives license for them to go with the GOP.
It’s a similar dynamic in northwestern Pennsylvania. Erie County’s working-class voters, who put both Obama and Trump in office, are unlikely to lean toward Harris, who calls San Francisco home. In Butler County, where Trump was shot and a beloved firefighter was murdered in the crossfire, voters will surge for Trump to a historic level.
In the Philadelphia media market, which includes Delaware, daily political coverage included Biden’s senatorial career for over forty years. Philadelphia and suburban residents learned about Biden’s doings no differently than from their own senators. Biden improved on Clinton’s historic suburban margins; Harris cannot recreate this affinity.
An African-American turnout surge in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, akin to that which propelled Obama into office, is highly likely. However, the anecdotes of Trump getting a closer look from black males are real. He earned 12% of the black vote in 2020, and it is not unreasonable to expect that he could maintain or improve on that performance, which may negate a Harris-driven turnout surge.
Driving the wedge with African American males, and with most Pennsylvanians, is the economy. Over 50% of Pennsylvanians rank the economy as the top issue, with Trump carrying a commanding lead over Harris in this regard. Meanwhile, less than 5% of voters rate abortion access as the election’s top issue. Most Pennsylvania political analysts cannot recall a time this century when a single issue so dominated voters’ priorities.
The unprecedented shift in Pennsylvania’s voter registration is yet another factor. Since 2008, the 1.1 million-voter Democratic registration advantage has whittled down to about 350,000. Prior to the 2024 Pennsylvania primary, all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties saw net gains of Republican voters. Should the trend continue, Pennsylvania will be majority Republican by 2028.
Mail-in balloting is relatively new to Pennsylvania. Starting during the 2020 Covid lockdowns, Democratic applicants hold a nearly 3:1 advantage over Republicans. While the margin is daunting, the lack of enthusiasm for Biden’s candidacy may hold relief for Republicans.
In the 2020 presidential election, nearly 1.7 million Democrats applied for a mail-in ballot; more than half of applicants applied after the third week of August. In the 2022 midterm, more than 900,000 Democrats applied for a mail-in ballot; about one-third applied after the same week in August. This year, about 650,000 Democrats have applied as of last week. To meet 2020’s tally, the Democrats have a lot of work to do. Yet all these factors pale beside the stunning polling trend that Trump is experiencing in the Keystone State. The former president’s Pennsylvania polling strength and consistency may be the most underreported trend of the 2024 election cycle.
Indian Hindus And Muslims See Neighbors Negatively
Indians tend to perceive their neighbors much more negatively than they are perceived themselves.
This is according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. Interestingly, Muslim Indians followed these same patterns, only perceiving some neighbors slightly more favorably, including Muslim nations.
While only 11 percent of Hindu Indians viewed Pakistan positively, this was up to 22 percent among Muslim Indians. Muslim-majority nation Bangladesh was a little more popular among the two groups, at 34 percent and 39 percent, respectively, expressing favorability. Sri Lanka scored highest among Hindu Indians – at a still modest 44 percent – while Muslim Indians saw the country less favorably, with just 29 percent expressing this sentiment.
This is in stark contrast to the opinions about India among Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Between 54 percent and 82 percent saw India positively as of the latest survey. Here, differences between Muslims and Hindus were more pronounced, with 54-64 percent of Muslims and 80+ percent of Hindus saying they liked India. More than half of Sri Lankan Muslims said they had a favorable view of Pakistan, while this was echoed among fewer Bangaldeshi Muslims at 39 percent – lower than Pakistan’s perception scores among Hindus from the two above nations.
LOS ANGELES—On a recent summer morning, a caravan of unmarked state police vehicles and white hazmat trucks crept past strip malls and wide intersections, making its way toward a pair of modest homes in a remote suburb north of Los Angeles.
A command came from the officers in the front of the black-and-white: “Seat belts off—in case we start taking fire.”
But there was no shootout. Just a tense half hour as a phalanx of two dozen state police—agents from the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC)—kept snipers trained on the house, waiting for the second of two suspects to emerge.
When she finally did, petite and barefoot in a black dress, the effect was mercifully anticlimactic.
Illegal cannabis cultivation operations, or “grows,” are a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry in California, dominated by a mix of transnational criminal organizations that authorities believe are symbiotic, if adversarial.
When agents serve a warrant, they often find human trafficking victims, automatic weapons, booby traps and, increasingly, banned toxic pesticides smuggled from China.
This particular raid, in Lancaster, netted around 1,020 plants—a modest haul compared with the herculean grows that have become common across California’s booming black market.
But such mild suburban tableaus belie a sleeping, sinister threat.
“What we have right now is organized criminal enterprises literally destroying the city building by building as they modify them for illegal cultivation,” Mike Katz, a Lancaster code enforcement officer who heads the city’s cannabis unit, told The Epoch Times.
“They’re endangering the families who will occupy those buildings in the future, they are lowering the value of neighboring properties and dragging the whole community down,” he said.
‘Super Toxic’
Buildings contaminated by illegal grows are dangerous because the harsh pesticides growers use permeate every surface—ceilings, walls, floors, vents and drywall.
Toxic black mold blooms in the 75 percent humidity needed to grow marijuana. The massive amounts of water and electricity required to sustain an operation can result in structural damage to vents and sunken floors, overloaded transformers and corroded wiring just itching for a fire.
Katz, whom the city’s chief of police refers to as the department’s “Swiss Army knife,” has been a firefighter, reserve police officer, and now, an unarmed code enforcement official. He approaches the job with a certain zeal, devouring scientific studies and how-to books on cultivation, and generally making it his mission to stop grow houses from slipping through the cracks.
Owners can often get away with making cosmetic fixes—“candy coating,” as one inspector puts it—if local governments don’t intervene before they start concealing the damage.
Working and middle-class families migrate to bedroom communities like Lancaster, where you can still find a single-family home with a backyard for around $500,000—about half the median price in Los Angeles, according to Redfin. You may find one for even less if a grower has been busted and is offloading at a discount.
The injustice of it rankles Katz. He imagines families struggling to buy a home, and their toddlers probing surfaces tainted with insecticides—potent carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, nerve agents and others no one even knows how to identify.
“They are super toxic, but very effective,” he said. “One we just learned of last week has a 14-year half-life. We did a search warrant back in January and didn’t get test results until this week. I’m having to tell all the detectives and everyone involved that we were exposed to these chemicals.”
Low-cost housing also attracts sophisticated criminal enterprises looking for ways to launder money and turn a profit. Often, illegal growers can do that after just one harvest. Typically, an operation can turn four to six harvests a year.
Wholesale value for the plants seized in the modest raid we accompanied—they were days away from a second harvest—is more than $540,000.
To avoid detection and stay a step ahead of authorities, growers are continually adapting.
“There are probably a lot more growing indoors that we don’t know about,” Jennifer Morris, a code enforcement officer with Riverside County and former head of its cannabis unit, told The Epoch Times. “But they’re pretty good at keeping themselves looking very nondescript.”
From the outside, the houses look normal, and it typically takes a fire, robbery, or neighbors reporting electrical theft to tip off law or code enforcement, Morris said. Growers also build walls to conceal grow rooms, and sometimes install a resident worker or a dog to give the appearance of normality.
Because the entire industry is clandestine, no one can accurately estimate the extent of the problem. Many communities might not even be aware it’s happening.
“I’ve talked to cities where they say, ‘We don’t have a problem,’” said David Welch, an attorney who contracts as a special counsel with cities in Los Angeles County that want “a more aggressive” approach to narcotics enforcement. “Then law enforcement will hit a grow in that city.”
Where there is one, there are likely more. But perpetrators are opportunistic, itinerant.
“We have seen the same owners of properties in different counties that have had illegal cultivation on them,” Morris said.
Wilson Linares, who leads the Department of Cannabis Control’s Los Angeles County law enforcement unit, said it’s hard to pinpoint which players are tied to which territories. “They’re just everywhere. It doesn’t really stay in that area, they just go wherever they can master operations.”
Growers, he said, “do a good job of layering their operation. I don’t think they even know they’re working for the same organization sometimes.”
That makes it difficult to go after the few bigger fish, to which, some insiders say, all these operations are ultimately “funneling up.”
Those caught at the grows are inevitably low-level employees, if not forced labor, and are typically interviewed and released. Illegal cultivation—anything more than six plants per person, whether it’s 10 or 10,000—is a misdemeanor in California.
“Sometimes our investigations do a good job at digging to make sure we’re eradicating the problem,” Linares said. “But sometimes they cut losses and move on and go somewhere else. We have to follow and chase them. It takes a lot of effort and time to conduct these investigations.”
Like meth houses of decades past, there are residential grows too damaged to flip.
But it’s the moderate ones, the ones that are at risk of selling at a discount to families, that keep Katz up at night.
While they can’t prevent the sale, or in many cases, habitation, building inspectors and code enforcement officers use “red tagging” and other methods to compel compliance—like creating liens to cloud the title, or disconnecting utilities. And in some cases, those costs and headaches transfer to new owners.
California law gives local government broad authority to abate “public nuisances”—which include dangerous and contaminated buildings, Katz said. But enforcing compliance can often depend on a municipality’s ability to pay for things like civil lawsuits.
If public safety officials don’t discover a grow before property owners start hiding the damage, it’s often too late.
“There is no roadmap,” Katz said. “These sociopaths are buying and selling these houses.”
There were signs. Two dozen large bags of what Virginia Aceres thought was ordinary grass fertilizer and canisters of chemicals bearing designs of spiders and worms that the previous owner left behind. He offered to pay her $500 to get rid of them.
In two months, a $10,000 electricity bill.
Aceres said she moved from Los Angeles to the Antelope Valley because she didn’t want her kids hanging out with people who use drugs. She nabbed a five-bedroom house for $535,000, $15,000 below asking. “It’s super big—we thought, oh wow, this is perfect.”
But she found out after moving in that it had been used by the previous owners to grow weed.
“Every afternoon the upstairs smells of marijuana and it gives me a raging headache,” she told The Epoch Times. When a city inspector came by and pointed out a convertor wired to steal electricity and stains on the bathroom ceilings from burned chemicals, she said, “Now I understand.”
The five bedrooms were originally three, she discovered; the previous owner had added two and it was up to her to register the additions with the city.
When property owners obtain permits to modify buildings but don’t follow up to call for a final inspection of the work, this can tip off code enforcement and form part of the basis for a warrant. So too can electrical fires or electricity theft.
But Aceres said she bought her house without any compliance obligations that would arise from a pre-sale code enforcement; inspectors came after she moved in and pointed out the damage.
The fuses at Aceres’ house are constantly blowing, especially if electronics are running at the same time, and electricians tell her she has to completely redo the wiring.
“My daughter relies on a machine to help her breathe,” Aceres said, referring to a nebulizer that delivers oxygen and liquid steroids. “We had to buy a generator. She’s 9; she can’t ride a bike, can’t walk more than 20 minutes, can’t run. At night she has panic attacks, she comes to my door in pain, she can’t breathe, so I connect the machine and give her medicine.”
A neighbor warned her the previous owner had installed multiple, massive air conditioners and there were fires. People cruise by the house. Someone showed up looking to collect on a debt. The IRS, the police and city inspectors have all visited.
“For all this, I’d like to move—because they’re going to confuse us and they’re going to think that we sell drugs or have something to do with all that. But we haven’t been able to sell the house because of all these problems,” she said. “If a buyer asks questions we’re obligated to tell them the truth.”
